


Catch and Release

by villainsarebetter (darkling59)



Series: Borrower!Rumple [1]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV), The Borrowers - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Borrowers Fusion, F/M, Miniature Character, Some day I'll figure out how these tags work better, Spinner Rumplestiltskin | Mr. Gold, pocket!Rumple
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-01
Updated: 2015-10-01
Packaged: 2018-04-24 06:18:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4908571
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darkling59/pseuds/villainsarebetter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Borrowers are a race of tiny people no more than six inches tall who live secretly in the walls and floors of human houses and “borrow” (re: steal) from humans in order to survive. Rumple and Bae are two such little people living in Belle’s apartment and they've just come face to face with their new human roommate. It does not go well.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Catch and Release

**Author's Note:**

> Finally managed to post this to ao3! 
> 
> The further adventures (or...pre-adventures) of Borrower Rumple!
> 
> Enjoy.

_Borrowers are a race of tiny people no more than six inches tall who live secretly in the walls and floors of human houses and “borrow” (re: steal) from humans in order to survive. (From Mary Norton’s novel series)_

_Rumple and Bae are two such little people, living in Belle’s apartment._

* * *

The light went on and everyone froze.

Belle stood in the doorway with a pillow in one hand, hair disheveled from sleep, and her free hand on the light switch. But there was nothing sleepy about her gaze as she stared at the two borrowers with wide, fully lucid eyes. Rumple’s hand clenched painfully on Bae’s shoulder and the boy barely noticed; they were two mice staring into the fangs of a cat.

Ignorant to their terror, Belle stared at the two little people in amazement. Borrowers weren’t as much of a secret as they’d once been since the advent of technology – being unseen no longer always meant undetected, what with motion sensors, heat detectors, and various types of surveillance and advanced pest control – but sightings were rare and considered more rumor than actual fact. What few borrowers had ever been captured were secreted away to labs or private collections, never reaching the public eye. To the general public, borrowers were more urban legend than reality. Belle had never seen one before, so the sight of the tiny creatures, perfectly reproduced miniature humans, huddled on her mantle, left her entranced.

Without thinking, she stepped forward for a better look and the frozen tableau broke. Father and son scrambled for the mouse hole through which they’d entered. They ran as fast as they could, Rumpelstiltskin keeping a death grip on Bae’s shoulder, dodging knickknacks and books in a  desperate attempt to escape. Unfortunately, at their size, the tastefully long mantle was the length of a football field and the room between them and Belle was only four human steps across.

“Wait!” Belle protested, coming forward with her hands held up in the universal sign of ‘I am unarmed’. “I won’t hurt you!”

Her ‘slow’ advancement was akin to a barreling freight train for Rumple and Bae – no matter what she said or did, her size and their instincts registered her as a ‘deadly predator’. Rumple almost sobbed with relief when they reached the bolt hole and pushed Bae through…just as Belle reached the mantle.

In panic, Rumple whirled, trying to get inside the hole and not turn his back on the human at the same time. But when she reached for him, he instinctively jumped away…and slipped off the edge of the mantle.

For a second, he wavered there, pin-wheeling his arms for balance. It lasted just long enough for dawning dread and realization to land as a leaden weight in his chest. There was just enough time for his eyes to find Bae and he tried to project his love, and his apology with the force of his gaze. He didn’t have enough time to open his mouth, or say so much as ‘ _I love you’_.

Then he fell.

He closed his eyes in the moment of weightlessness before impact, not wanting to see his imminent demise. Borrowers were hardier than larger creatures, much like other small mammals, but a fall so many times his height landing on his back and neck was enough to break most of the bones in his body.

Distantly, beyond the sound of wind whistling past his ears, he heard his son’s cry of denial.

And then-

“Gotcha!”

Rumple’s eyes snapped open as, instead of meeting the unforgiving wooden floor, he was abruptly enveloped by something soft, landing on a mysterious surface that gave so much he sank in several inches before coming to a halt. There was no time to feel relieved at surviving before the surface lurched and he realized he was mere inches from the human he’d been running from. He flailed in panic, flipping onto his front and scrabbling hopelessly against slick fabric, distantly noticing that the ‘surface’ was the pillow that Belle had been holding.

“No nonono-! It’s okay, it’s okay-!” She tried to placate him, but he was too panicked to listen as he struggled desperately to escape her grasp. “Calm down, it’s okay!” She tried to keep the pillow level to keep him from falling, backing across the room to find a more stable surface to place him on, but it was a losing battle and when he reached the edge and looked ready to jump, she instinctively reached out and grabbed the nearest item to help, which turned out to be a knitted blanket on the couch. “Please calm down! Easy, easy…!” She threw it over him, pinning him to pillow and muffling his struggles. “I’m just trying to help! Please calm down!”

(Incidentally, he probably would have survived the drop from that lower height if he landed properly. Borrower sturdiness at its best.) 

After a final, futile, desperate thrash, the little man let out a low keening sound and collapsed, going completely limp in her hands.

Startled at the sudden lack of movement, Belle paused and cautiously lifted the blanket slightly to look beneath. The borrower’s eyes were closed and he wasn’t moving, just lying there like a broken doll.

Her heart sank.

“Oh, no…” She gasped. “I didn’t mean…please don’t be hurt!”

She threw the blanket back, tossing it back on the couch and hurried across the room to the ensuite kitchen where she hastily flicked on the lights and set the pillow holding the borrower on the free-standing kitchen table. With both hands now free, she reached for him but paused almost instantly with her hands hovering over his fragile form, wary of hurting him any more than he already was. Gently, she lowered two fingers to press against his back, searching for a reaction.

The borrower didn’t move, but she could feel the racing of his heart going so fast she could barely pick out individual beats. She could also feel that his entire body was trembling uncontrollably.

“It’s okay. I’m here to help. Just lie still, you’ll be fine…” She murmured, keeping up a string of soothing platitudes as she oh-so-gently tried to find any sign of injury. He did not seem to register her words or touches; he never moved or opened his eyes – she wasn’t even sure he was conscious. After ten minutes or so of trying to help him, she’d still found nothing wrong and her anxiety was mounting. Was he just unconscious? Did he have internal injuries? How could she help?

Finally, she pulled away, stroking his hair and back gently with one finger in an attempt to comfort…before realizing he’d probably find that terrifying instead.

Should she call a doctor? A vet? Animal control? A wildlife center? Who was able to help a borrower? She didn’t want to move him, because she was pretty sure you weren’t supposed to do that when internal injuries were involved…but what _could_ she do?

She paced back and forth across the kitchen, chewing nervously at a fingernail and never taking her eyes her diminutive patient.

“Now, what should I do with you, little guy?” She murmured. “If you’re hurt, you need to see a doctor, but…” She grimaced. Not only did she not know where she could take him, she knew exactly what would happen if she took him to the wrong person. Most likely he’d wind up in a lab somewhere. “Just…stay there. I’ll be right back.”

* * *

On the other side of the room Bae watched the human handling his father with dread and anticipation. He was absolutely still, hidden in the shadows just inside the bolt hole. In some ways, his father’s plight had been a blessing for him; it had distracted the human so completely that it seemed she’d forgotten there was more than one borrower. But watching the limp form of his father, helpless in the clutches of every borrower’s most feared enemy, he didn’t feel lucky.

He knew the stories of what happened to borrowers when they were captured by humans. The crushing, the poisoning, the torture, the cages, the experiments… by far the most common story was of borrowers being stepped on, crushed by massive feet, or simply smushed on purpose by huge hands or flyswatters or other human tools, like the little people were no more than insects. The most horrifying story Bae had ever heard, from a basement-borrower back at their old home, had included both: a flyswatter as wide as a borrower was tall, and then a man’s boot to…to…

He swallowed down his tears, trying to push the horror stories out of his mind. Borrowers were typically fairly practical about death; at their size, they had to be. Anything bigger than a rat was a potential predator, and the humans they relied on were capable of killing them in droves with their pest control efforts (poison, traps, pets, etc.). Living apart from humans was, if anything, even more hazardous; it seemed like borrower was on the menu for every animal out there and food was much harder to come by in the wild. It was rare for a borrower to reach adulthood without experiencing the loss of close friends and family members – most of them even saw it happen, often gruesomely. They were expected to handle it without much fuss by the time they were Bae’s age.

But that was in a normal borrower family unit; Bae had only ever had his father and this was the closest he’d ever come to losing him. They’d been there for each other through thick and thin; through the worst of the old house and the journey to the new place, when there were scores of other borrowers in the warren and when they were utterly alone. Rumpelstiltskin had risked his life dozens of times to save Bae since he’d been born, and Bae loved his father with all his heart. He refused to give up on him.

The human’s voice was too soft for him to hear most of her words but her tone gave him a little bit of hope; she didn’t _sound_ like she was planning to squash or poison his father. Maybe she was the kind of human to keep a borrower as a pet? She’d rescued him from the fall, after all. If she was, Bae might be able to sneak his father out once she went to sleep. There were passageways and borrower holes leading to most of the raised surfaces in the apartment so he’d probably be able to reach wherever she put the cage. It could work - _if_ his father was able to walk.

Bae hadn’t seen the fall; he’d barely had time to see his father’s wide eyed, horrified look of realization before he dropped from view; but he _had_ seen his father being restrained by the human afterwards (and, oh God, the sight of his papa struggling as hard as he could and still being effortlessly pinned down by hands as big as he was, subdued and nearly crushed by the human monster, would return in his nightmares). Rumpelstiltskin’s intense struggles had looked healthy enough, and he’d sounded desperate and scared but not in pain.

Plus, it was a technique directly out of his father’s survival lessons; if struggling didn’t work, and there was no hope of escape otherwise, _play dead_. Cats would sometimes lose interest in prey that didn’t move and plenty of other predators had sight based on movement. Even humans might lower their guard if they thought their victim was dead.

It wasn’t _quite_ working – the human obviously suspected he was still alive – but she had taken off the restraining blanket and stopped physically forcing him into the pillow. The touching was nerve-wracking – just the slightest too much pressure on his father’s chest or back could cave in his ribs or spine – but she seemed to be gentle.

Bae perked up when she moved away from the table, leaning closer to the light and watching his father desperately for a sign of his condition. To his relief, as soon as the human was out of the room, Rumpelstiltskin’s eyes snapped open and he raised his head, watching the doorway where she’d vanished, and then looking towards Bae’s vantage point. He was too far away for Bae to see his expression, but knowing his father, he assumed it was supposed to be reassuring. The table was free-standing, so it wasn’t an opportunity to escape, but the fact that his father was _looking_ for an escape meant he wasn’t badly injured.

By the time the human returned, his father was one again sprawled limp on the pillow feigning unconsciousness.

* * *

Belle rushed back to the kitchen as fast as possible, worried her little patient would wake up and fall off the table in panic or disorientation. She hadn’t wanted to leave him, but she needed to grab her computer, to hopefully get some answers. It took less than thirty seconds, but she still breathed a sigh of relief when she came back to find him exactly where she’d left him.

She sat down in the chair nearest to the borrower and her pillow, so close that he could hear the whine of the laptop’s internal mechanisms starting up and the steady whirr of the cooling vents.  He cracked an eye to watch as she opened the computer and started typing into a search engine.

“Let’s see, then…” She spoke quietly, more to reassure herself that she wasn’t alone than because she was expecting any kind of response. “Let’s try…” she eyed him in indecision. “WebMD?”

Apparently, if a human fell from a distance so many times their own height, you were supposed to call an ambulance immediately and make sure the patient didn’t move until an EMT could check for internal injuries. Good advice, but not entirely useful given the situation.

“Little people?”

Some blurry pictures and photo shopped images, and a few conspiracy theorist pages. The only advice she found was to keep a captured little person in a metal cage with a padlock and call the media (or the site moderators) as soon as possible. She stopped following that track when she reached a few sites offering rewards for ‘specimens’ – living or dead.

“Small animal vets?”

Out of a dozen entries, the most widely accepting veterinary offices only treated rodents, birds, rabbits, some exotics, dogs, and cats. They suggested calling the office and asking for personal advice during business hours, or calling an emergency vet after hours.

“Wildlife centers?”

There was only one local wildlife center, and it suggested that if you found an injured wild animal, you should either call animal control (if it was large or an immediate threat) or corral it somehow and transport it to the wildlife center (if it wasn’t a threat). However, there was also a list of common problems that could be treated at home, including: cat-caught rodents and birds, window-stunned birds, and abandoned fledglings.

In all cases, the first suggestion for small animals without any obvious physical injuries was to put them in a small, dark space such as a shoebox with food and water away from human contact. In theory, this gave them a soothing atmosphere in which they could recover from shock. After a few hours, the animal might be fully recovered from its ordeal. If it wasn’t, there was a list of other common problems to check for.

The website suggested limiting human contact as much as possible; some animals could die from fear and stress alone.

Belle remembered the way the little man’s heart had been beating so fast it seemed to hum, and winced.

She’d kept a running commentary going on the successes and failures of her search for the benefit of her small patient, but after reading the last page, she stopped, worried that her presence was stressing him out even more.

It felt somehow disrespectful to follow advice meant for small rodents and birds with a creature that looked so much like a human, but it was the only applicable advice she could find. 

“Let’s you get set up then, shall we?” She reached out to give him a reassuring pat, but stopped at the last second, mindful of the advice.

It wasn’t difficult to find a shoebox, which she lined with a towel and several soft rags and punched a dozen breathing holes in the lid. Then she gently slipped her hands under him, trying to cradle him while jarring him as little as possible.

To her surprise, he flinched at her touch, and his eyes blinked open. His heart, which had calmed a bit, began to speed up, but he didn’t struggle, just stared at her silently. She cupped him in her hands and smiled gently. Her relief at his apparent health was obvious.

“Easy…It’s okay. Let’s get you somewhere to rest, alright?”

She set him down in the center of the box, in the little nest she’d made from rags and towels. His wide eyes stayed on her the entire time, until she put the lid back on the box and secured it firmly in place with tape and rubber bands. She heard faint scrabbling inside for a few seconds, followed by silence.

She smiled slightly, relieved that he seemed to be coming out of shock. She’d check on him one last time before bed, and let him go tomorrow if he was fully recovered.

* * *

Rumpelstiltskin huddled in a corner of the box with his back against the cardboard and his good leg pulled up against his chest, bad leg stretched out in front of him. He didn’t know what to make of his situation. He was experienced enough to know that not all humans were bad…but the stories of good humans were far outweighed by the others, and he’d never met one of the good ones. In fact, he’d only directly interacted with two humans before and neither of them realized he was there.

Belle seemed…nice. Big, of course, and intimidating, but she really seemed to care that he’d been hurt. He didn’t like being manhandled by someone capable of snapping him in half like a twig or accidentally crushing him with a negligent wave of a hand, but simply being in her presence as she read off the websites to him and talked to him with genuine care in her voice…well, it hadn’t been _bad_. He’d even started to relax.

Him. _Relax_. Less than a foot away from a human, no less.

It hadn’t lasted. He had _not_ liked being picked up. But…he wasn’t as scared of her as he had been. And if he managed to escape (or she let him go, as she said she intended) then he wasn’t sure he and Bae would have to move. She honestly didn’t seem to mind that he was in her apartment. He hadn’t had the urge to talk to her– he’d need far more control over the situation (plus a convenient bolt hole, just in case) for that to be comfortable – but for the first time, he thought he might feel that urge at some point.

Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to get to know the human they were borrowing from.

The borrower settled back against the wall of his small cage, not quite relaxed but only wary rather than scared.

He had a lot to think about.

* * *

Belle checked on him one more time before bed, peeking under the lid and finding him looking at her nervously from his place curled up on the other side of the box. A quick smile was the only interaction she offered before leaving him to sleep in peace, with the box on the dresser in her room. (She didn’t want to let it out of her sight, in case something happened.)

Three hours later, Bae crept out of a borrower hole cleverly hidden by a hinged decoration in the wall molding. He watched the human for a long time, making sure she was asleep, before creeping up behind the box.

“Papa?” He whispered.

“Bae?” There was a shuffling and his father’s muffled voice was suddenly very close. “Are you alright?”

Baelfire huffed quietly. “I’m _fine_ , Papa. Are-Are you okay? You fell…” His voice was suddenly small, smaller than he’d intended. “And, _she_ had you.”

Rumpelstiltskin chuckled. “I’m alright, son. She didn’t hurt me. In fact, she was quite distressed by the thought that she might have done so unintentionally.”

The younger borrower frowned uneasily. “I brought the cutter.” He hefted a worn plastic exacto-knife with a well-sharpened razorblade attached to the end. “Will this work to get you out?”

“That should do nicely.”

“How should I-?”

“Start at the bottom and cut up, just enough for me to crawl out. We don’t want to attract attention. If the human seems to be waking up, stop and run.”

“I won’t leave you, Papa.” Bae set his jaw, stubborn. “I promise.”

The cardboard separated easily under his blade.

* * *

Belle woke up out of a light sleep at the quiet sound of scuffling on her dresser. She didn’t move, at first confused by what she was seeing in the moonlight shining through her window, and then purposely still as she made out a tiny form crouched next to the box. She watched as the small creature seemed to dig at the box and a moment later, a larger (but still small) familiar form squirmed out of the hole he’d made.

To her relief, her little man didn’t seem any the worse for wear from his experience. She watched as he ruffled the hair of the smaller creature (his child?) and the two of them set off across the dresser, silently moving between the objects, aiming for a hole in the wall she was willing to swear wasn’t there when she went to bed.

The taller form was the second to go into the hole and he paused at the last second, looking back at her for so long that she thought she’d been caught. But he didn’t react otherwise, and after a moment, ducked into the hole after his companion, sliding the decoration into place behind him to conceal the hole once again.

Belle smiled, turned over, and went back to sleep.


End file.
